A Day in the Life of the Lensbaby User - DATE: 11 NOVEMBER 2011

Quotewsphotodesign
I photographed at the Denver Zoo between 3:30 and 4:30 pm. Minimal retouching - just took out a few reflections and adjusted the colors to my liking...these are some of my favorites.

So many great images - wow!
I went outside Copenhagen, looking for some light, and I did find some light!
Here are some of my favorites, photographed between 11:56 and 14:35 local time.
Composer and Plastic Optic.

I live in Aurora, Colorado (a suburb of Denver) in an area bordering an 880 acre State Park. I'm fortunate to have a beautiful mountain view from my home studio - which quite literally is where I spend most of my life. I own a little business in which I design and make things for kids - mostly little stuffed animals I call "Wee Ones" which I sell online and in stores across the country. As you can imagine holiday time is crazy busy for me, so I put in long hours from July thru December. And then it starts all over again with winter and spring holidays in January - June.

November 11, 2011 was pretty much like any work day for me, starting at about 3:45 am.

*Images #1 and #2 - 4 am - my work process with an assembly line style of cutting patterns and then sewing

*Image #8 - 4:41 pm - a drink with Roxy the Raccoon while going over some administrative work at my computer

*Image #9 - 7:05 pm - a snuggle with my 18.5 year old cat, A-choo, before heading back to my computer

I purchased my first Lensbaby (the LB 2.0) sometime in 2005 or 2006 and have been absolutely hooked ever since. I followed that purchase with a Lensbaby Original (LB0) as well as telephoto and wide angle adaptors and macro filters . When the new generation of lenses came out I added the muse and composer and all the optics to my collection. So, yeah, I'm a true believer. :)

All these images were shot with my LB 2.0 - still my favorite of them all. :)

November 11th, 2011 was a hectic and emotionally divided day for me...

Some of you may remember Mr. Thumb, the "little friend" that I inadvertently created a couple of years ago. Well, on the afternoon of November 10, 2011, my wife decided it would be great fun to create a little friend of her own.....by removing part of HER thumb with a chef's knife...the day before we were catering a wedding. After making sure that she wasn't going to bleed to death or pass out, I said to her "WHAT the #*$% were you thinking!?! We have a Wedding tomorrow!!!!", the exact words she said to me (before checking to make sure that I wasn't going to bleed to death or pass out, I might add...) two years ago when I "decided" to create Mr. Thumb.

I'm not saying that I was waiting for this moment to arrive, but I will say that I gladly seized this moment with all ten digits.

And so we have:

1) 8:26am, Mrs. Thumb says, "Yumb, donuts!"

Now you may be asking yourself, "What is Mrs. Thumb doing with all those donuts? Didn't you say you were catering a wedding?".

Well, it turns out that the bride and groom are both freaks for the tasty toroidal treats and had asked the wife to make a wedding cake out of.....um.....donuts. If anyone could make a thing of true beauty out of so pedestrian a product, it would be Mrs. Thumb, aka Mrs. Crabcakes, aka my lovely wife (she once made a wedding cake out of Twinkies, no kidding). And so it was that on the eve of the blessed event, we were presented with 132 donuts for to make a wedding cake.

3) 10:16am, the wedding-cake-topper-bride says, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine...including that Donut!!"

It was not by any means a shotgun wedding, the bride and groom having been together for many years, but let's just say it was a modern wedding, the traditional order having been changed a bit by blessing the earth with their child before the nuptials...

4) 12:07pm, the happy baby.

5) 12:46pm, the happy couple.

6) 1:02pm, the harpist's hands. She played beautifully.

--------------------------------------------------------------

For many in the west, November 11th is a day to remember our men and women of service, lost to the violence of war. In Great Britain, Austalia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Commonwealth Nations it is known as Remembrance Day. In the United States it is known as Veterans Day. Originally a day to remember soldiers lost during World War One, the so-called "War to end all wars", in the United States it has become a day to remember and honor service veterans no matter the conflict or cause or time of death.

When I was younger, for a time, I was very anti-war; anti-government--well very idealistic, rebellious and just...Anti-. And while I still feel, as many in this country do, that I love my country, but fear my government, I never questioned the value of my father's service. I hope that I have learned a few lessons and learned a little respect for those who may have been involved in a conflict even if I might have had issues with the causes or outcome of that conflict. I try to thank every veteran that I meet.

My father was a veteran of two wars (WWII and Korea) and died from complications from Alzheimer's disease on May 31st/June 1st 2010. I felt it was time to visit his grave as I have not been since before his death. He and my mother are buried together at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery outside of Saint Louis, Missouri and I had not visited the site since shortly after my mother passed in 2006 (being the wife of a veteran, she was buried there before him).

It's been a rough few years.

After so long, hurrying to get there before the sun set and having left home without a map or the grave designation number, I spent the better part of an hour driving around and not finding the grave-site. Having given up and consigned myself to taking a few pictures of the cemetery and going home, I finally found a landmark on my way out that I recognized.
But it was too late.
The sun was set.
The light was leaving.
The graves became white ghosts in the twilight.

--------------------------------------------------------------

My apologies for the lengthiness of this post but I found no other way to convey my complicated feelings on this day. If you bother to read it all, I thank you for your patience.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Many thanks to Outback--what an awesome project-idea.

Many thanks to the whole LB team for giving us the Lensbaby.

Many thanks to everyone who participated--some wonderful images--a great slice of the life of the Lensbaby.

Johnny Crabcakes

"Failure is the key to success;
Each mistake teaches us something."
--Morihei Ueshiba

Crabby - you brought tears with your touching images and your story. My father-in-law is a veteran of Korea and is almost 89, so I can relate to your story. I,too, was a rebel in my youth (and still am about certain things...) but one thing I certainly have come to value and respect are our veterans and men and women of the present day military.

Thank you for your meaningful post... I love the last image the most...
Cindi